How many mountain bikers outside of Austria, Switzerland and Germany have heard of the Simplon brand? If you have, it’s probably because you’ve a taste for excessively well-engineered bikes that can stare down the lycra-clad competition in the summer season.

Back in 2011, Thames & Hudson released a book called Cyclepedia. It was a comprehensive photographic library of some of the most iconic bicycles ever created. Some of them were ugly, most were beautiful, but all were collected by the discerning eye of one man, Michael Embacher. Well, he’s just offered the whole damn lot…